Build estimates that people can understand and review.
Cost Guides explains how project costs are defined, organized, tested, approved and monitored—from an early planning range to a controlled baseline and forecast at completion.
Move from a rough idea to a defensible forecast
A project estimate is more than a total. It needs a scope boundary, a documented basis, visible uncertainty, an approved baseline and a method for learning from actual performance.
Define what the estimate covers
Clarify scope, quantities, exclusions, timing, location, currency and price date.
Build and review the estimate
Choose methods that fit the available information and test the assumptions that drive the result.
Control and update the numbers
Set a baseline, record approved changes, compare actual performance and update the forecast.
Three guides that establish the structure
These pages explain how an estimate is built, how it becomes an approved baseline and how performance is measured against it.
Build the estimate
Define scope, select estimating methods, document assumptions and communicate a range that fits the project stage.
Start estimating →Create the baseline
Time-phase the approved budget, keep contingency visible and establish rules for authorized changes.
Build a baseline →Measure and forecast
Compare planned, earned and actual cost, interpret variances and revise the expected cost at completion.
Understand earned value →Work through planning scenarios in your browser
The calculators run locally in the browser. They do not require an account or intentionally send project inputs to this site.
Project estimate builder
Combine labour, materials, equipment, subcontracting, overhead and contingency.
Open calculator →Three-point contingency
Use optimistic, most-likely and pessimistic values to explore uncertainty and a planning range.
Open calculator →Earned value calculator
Calculate cost and schedule performance, forecast EAC and estimate variance at completion.
Open calculator →What makes an estimate useful?
A reliable estimate should be complete enough for its purpose, traceable to its assumptions and evidence, current for its date basis, and honest about uncertainty.
Complete for the decision
Include the relevant work, indirect support, schedule effects, risk, escalation and lifecycle elements.
Documented and traceable
Record scope, sources, methods, assumptions, exclusions, price date and review history.
Current and normalized
Adjust historical or benchmark information for differences in time, location, size, scope and performance.
Presented with uncertainty
Do not make an early estimate look more certain than its inputs. Use ranges, sensitivity and risk discussion.